Traders try to game Platts oil-price benchmarks

The European Union says it is searching for evidence that oil traders manipulate prices. If oil trader Halis Bektas is correct, it shouldn’t be hard to find. Mr. Bektas describes one strategy he has used himself: Offer to sell a small amount at a loss to drive down published oil prices, then snap up shiploads at the lower price.
He says such a trading strategy works this way: He might be scheduled to buy perhaps 80,000 metric tons of fuel oil, its price pegged to the daily benchmark published by Platts, a division of McGraw Hill Financial Inc. In the days before the purchase, he could offer to sell smaller quantities at discount prices—sometimes $3 to $5 a metric ton below market rate—and report those offer prices to Platts………………………………………..Full Article: Source